Police: Murder-suicide was during class

A man wielding a sharp-edged weapon killed one person in a Casper neighborhood Friday before killing a male teacher and himself in front of students in a community-college classroom, causing a campuswide lockdown as authorities tried to piece together what happened.

Police found the suspect and teacher dead at a science building on the Casper College campus, which was locked down for about two hours, school and police officials said. The other victim, a woman, was found in a street about 2 miles away.

Casper Police Chief Chris Walsh said the murder- suicide took place in a classroom with students present, but he didn’t know how many students or what the class topic was.

He said investigators were trying to determine a motive.

Walsh said an “edged weapon” was used it at least one of the killings, but he didn’t offer specifics and it was unclear if the same or a similar weapon was used in all of the deaths.

The attacker wasn’t believed to be a Casper student, and it appeared he knew the victims, Walsh said. No names were released.

“We’re locating next of kin and working on notification absolutely as fast as we can,” Walsh said.

He added authorities didn’t believe there was any further threat to the community.

The attack at the two-year community college in Casper, about 250 miles northwest of Denver, occurred just before 9 a.m. in a classroom on the science building’s third floor. All students and staff were evacuated from the building.

The college sent out a campuswide alert via text message and email within two minutes of receiving word of the attack at 9:06 a.m., school spokesman Rich Fujita said.

The lockdown ended at about 11 a.m. after school officials received word that police were no longer searching for a suspect, Fujita said.